Clinton Capital Partners

Venture advisory with its own capital in the deals

Based in Australia, Clinton Capital Partners advises young companies on raising capital, with the aim of lifting the returns of the shareholders behind them. It was founded in 2015 by an investment banker with more than three decades in global financial markets, including time in London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. The firm also invests its own money in the companies it advises, which it says lines up the interests of company, investor and advisor.

Four lines of advisory work

Its services are grouped around the life of a young company:

• Capital raising, through equity and debt.
• Investor readiness, which covers deal structuring and due diligence.
• Help to build, grow and scale a business.
• Mergers and acquisitions, exits and liquidity events.

The advice runs from seed and angel rounds through later series to an IPO, and the clients it names range from first-time entrepreneurs to government agencies.

Why it says fundraising is harder than founders expect

The firm's view is that early-stage companies underestimate how long a raise takes and how far it pulls attention from the business itself. It stresses finding investors who are a cultural fit for the journey, and it points to a shift in the market: according to the site, investors outside the traditional venture funds now provide most venture funding. Reviewing every option, it argues, matters because the wrong investor on the wrong terms is costly for a founder.

The firm's own account of its record

The site cites more than 100 transactions over more than eleven years, over 25 years of advising and investing in Australian venture capital, and relationships with more than 5,000 investors, among them family offices, boutique and institutional funds, private equity and corporates. It works on a success basis, with no fee if there is no result.

Access for wholesale investors

The firm also serves what it calls wholesale investors, promising access to venture opportunities that many would not see, a structured due diligence process and a record of returns. Its guiding motto, which it describes as its investment thesis, is "Yesterday's Principles for Tomorrow's Companies", built on honour, integrity and humility.